An Inside look at Harvard University

Part of the Women in Travel Summit was a tour of Harvard University, located in Cambridge this historic campus is beautiful and is well worth the visit. Thanks to Jolanta Davis of Casual Traveler , an  Harvard employee and wits attendee who led the tour for providing such a great historical and diverse tour.

Established in 1636 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony using around 400 pounds which is a little over $85 thousand to create the college. A year later Newtowne later named Cambridge was selected as the location of this famous college. How did the college get its name? A young clergyman by the name of John Harvard left four hundred books  and half of the value of his estate to the school in his will, so those in charge decided to name it after him as a thank you.

Only one of the original buildings in the courtyard still stands the rest are rebuilt from the originals, it is said that Harvard freshman enter in the main gate but may only exit it after they graduate. The statue in front of the administrative building is actually a student who posed for the statue and not John Harvard, they had no clue what he looked like. Tourists rub his foot or luck and on the day of our tour there were plenty of tourists around the statue taking photos. For the rest of my Harvard photos visit my Instagram.

We walked through one building that had beautiful stain glass windows and served as a tribute to all those students who served in the wars that had been killed and the student union looks like a church but never has been a church, in the school history. The Harvard Library is an expansive and beautiful building with the Widener Memorial room and Library included: this includes several hidden floors of book and a room of Widener’s possessions where photos are not allowed. Harry Elkins Widener was a 1907 Harvard graduate who died on the Titanic. He had around 3,300 books.

Our tour ended by having lunch at the Faculty club which had a nice spread and gives you a buffet meal and dessert all for $22, sure its a bit pricy but  you can say you ate at Harvard. If you are interested in more history or doing your own tour of Harvard please see casual traveler’s Harvard post.